Today would have been Maria Mitchell's 195th birthday, and if she were still around she'd probably celebrate it by looking at the stars

Today would have been Maria Mitchell’s 195th birthday, and if she were still around, she’d probably celebrate it by looking at the stars. Mitchell was America’s first female professional astronomer. She discovered a comet in 1847 while sitting on the roof of the bank where her father worked, and in 1865 became a professor of astronomy at Vassar College. She also cofounded the American Association for the Advancement of Women and was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has a moon crater and a World War II Liberty Ship named after her, as well as an observatory in Nantucket.

Mitchell would likely appreciate the artistic rendering of herself perched atop a building looking at the stars. She once said, “We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.”

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About Rose Eveleth

Rose Eveleth is a writer for Smart News and a producer/designer/ science writer/ animator based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, Story Collider, TED-Ed and OnEarth.

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